BLACK DINAH CHOCOLATIERShttp://www.blackdinahchocolatiers.com/default.aspx
Created by: Paulina J Vafias and Alix Anketell Cohen
  1. This Chocolate Shop was developed on the Isle au Haut in Maine
    • It was created on July 1, 2007
  2. The business was created by owners Kate and Steve Schaffer.
  3. The cafe is located at the bottom of the Black Dinah mountain.
    • The location of the cafe is the meaning behind the name of the business.
    • The hours of operation for the cafe are:

SPRING HOURS

May 22nd-June 28th
Friday-Sunday, 7:30 am-4:00 pm

SUMMER HOURS

July 1st - August 29th
Wednesday-Sunday, 7:30 am - 4:00 pm

  1. There chocolate company was just featured in the June issue of Gourmet Magazine
  2. The main(e) shop is a cafe with 12 seats inside.
  3. Steve and Kate make two different types of truffles:
    • Belgium- a truffle with a ganache inside, this is a truffle of any shape
    • French- a truffle also with a ganache inside, this is normally a square truffle
  4. Kate and Steve have their chocolate pieces ready to melt and remake shipped from Belgium, Venezuela, and Peru
  5. Our Experience of Chocolate Making Lessons with Kate-
    • Our group of nine entered Kates wonderful Cafe anxiously waiting to start our hands-on adventure of chocolate making. On a table, Kate had set up different spices and foods and three bowls of white,dark, and milk chocolate. Our job was to take a piece of chocoalte and while it was melting in our mouth smell a spice to see if the two went together making bliss in our mouth. Once debating the three components of our signature chocolate, raspberry jam,oranges, and milk chocolate, we entered the kitchen where all the magic takes place. Kate gave us a quick idiot-proof lecture on the process and difficulties put into chocolate making. She described the main piece of chocolate making, which is making sure it is always in temper. With the chocolate in temper you bite into a smooth, shiny, and crisp chocolate. A main clue the chocolate is not in temper is if you can see white streaks which signify fat lines. Kate then gave us the opportunity to make two signature belgium dome truffles, dip and decorate two french truffles, and make a hollow chocolate rainboot and fill it with chocolate fish and seashells.
    • When discussing her business with us Kate said a wonderful thing that described their business and effort her and her husband put in everyday, " every piece of chocolate has special energy put into it making our chocolate different then other companies". They put so much effort into their chocolates avoiding as much machines as possible in oreder to have a fully homeade business.
    • All in all we had a wonderful experience and would recommend Kate and Steve's classes to anyone. You will not regret the decision and will return definitely more than once.
  6. Pictures from lessons:
    • Picture_029.jpg
      Our group of nine in Kates Cafe with our box of four truffles
    • Picture_023.jpg
      Ally Abe dipping the French truffles in Dark chocolate
    • Picture_027.jpg
      The decorated fish and seashell chocolates kate premade for us to but into our chocolate rainboots
    • Picture_018.jpg
      Paulina filling our signature truffles with our raspberry, orange ganache
  7. Pictures of their homeade truffles from their website:
    • Strawberry_33.jpg
    • the_flamingo_truffle.jpg
    • Gonne_Maude.jpg
    • Lemon_Truffle.jpg
    • MAine_MInt.jpg
    • bees_and_flowers.jpg
    • Cranberry_27.jpg

**Made by Alix Anketell Cohen and Paulina J Vafias